An Introduction to

Conversational Leadership

HKKMS/KMIRC half day conference

Nov 2014

Henry of Germany giving a lecture at the

University of Bologna in the 14th century

Have you ever questioned the lecture as

a means of learning?

Show me a Professor of

Education … who

lectures, and I’ll show you

a hypocrite who doesn’t

read the research

Donald Clarke, PlanB Learning

Gurteen Knowledge Café

Strand Palace Hotel

Sept 2002

• Run them all over the world

• Interesting cultural issues

• Format always works

• People naturally love to talk

Global Knowledge Cafés

Organizational

Conversation

Conversation permeates our organizational lives

Organizational Conversation is the myriad of

conversations, both formal and informal, that take place

everyday, minute to minute, within an organization.

Conversation is the life-blood of an organization

Business is a conversation

because the defining work of

business is conversation -

literally.

And 'knowledge workers' are

simply those people whose job

consists of having interesting

conversations.

David Weinberger

The Cluetrain Manifesto

Conversations are the way workers

discover what they know, share it

with their colleagues, and in the

process create new knowledge for

the organisation.

In the new economy,

conversations are the most

important form of work ... so

much so that the conversation is

the organisation.

Alan Weber

Harvard Business Review

Our most effective KM tool is

conversation

The words we choose, the

questions we ask, and the

metaphors we use to explain

ourselves

are what determine our success in

creating new knowledge

as well as sharing that knowledge

with each other.

Nancy Dixon

Common Knowledge

Conversation is Action

How some organizations are tapping

into the power of conversation

(and you could too)

• A meeting can get chaotic when you try to explore ideas and make decisions at the same time

• Breaking it into two separate meetings can greatly improve things

• Megan Morys, Harwell, Oxford

Transform Meetings

Interview with Megan Morys, Harwell, Oxford

at a Knowledge Café Workshop

Royal Society of Arts, London 2012

Randomised Coffee Trials (RCTs)

• A Randomised Coffee Trial is a simple way to bring

people together in pairs at random from across an

organization to have coffee once a month

• Some RCTs are spent entirely on work-related

matters, others are entirely personal in nature

• The coffee meeting can even be via Skype as with the

Red Cross Red Crescent

Randomised Coffee Trials

Red Cross Red Crescent

Randomised Coffee Trials

RCTs give people an ‘excuse’ to meet & build

connections with other people in the organization

People from different parts of the organization discover

unexpected synergies between their work

Increase their level of comfort for later approaching each

other to potentially collaboration

Nesta is an innovation charity with a

mission to help people and

organizations bring great ideas to life

Institutionalizing Serendipidity

Breaking down Silos

• Bank of England

– One Bank

• British Library

– One British Library

• UK Cabinet Office

• Dept. of Education

• Scottish Government

• Surrey County Council

• National Audit Office

• Bank of England

• British Library

• UK Trade & Investment (UKTI)

• Mars

• Royal Society of Arts

• Red Cross Red Crescent

• KHDA (Dubai)

Organizations running RCTs

Conversational Leadership

Conversational Leadership is a style of

working where everyone in an organization

understands the transformative power of

conversation.

They take a conversational approach to the

way that they connect, relate and work with

each other.

David Gurteen

• Modify their behavior to take a conversational approach to the way that they work and interact with each other.

• Are conversational catalysts and purposefully nurture and stimulate the natural conversations that take place in the organization.

• Help build a strong social fabric and a sense of community by connecting people and helping them build relationships with each other.

• Practice daily conversational methods such as peer assists, after action reviews and knowledge cafés.

• Are conversational architects - they identify the strategic conversations that need to take place in the organization; the questions to trigger them and design the processes to convene and host them.

Conversational Leaders

I view anyone with a sphere of

influence as a “leader,” whether or not

she has that explicit job description

Daniel Goleman

Who is talking about Conversational Leadership?

• World Café: Juanita Brown & David Isaacs

• Talk Inc. by Boris Groysberg & Michael Slind

• Nancy Dixon

• Henry Mintzberg

• Gervase Bushe

• Peter Block

If you would like

to learn more

drop me an emaildavid.gurteen@gurteen.com

Question

What are the possibilities for transforming

our organizations through taking a more

conversational approach to the way we work?

www.gurteen.com

David GURTEEN

Gurteen Knowledge

Fleet, United Kingdom

Tel: +44 7774 178 650

Email: david.gurteen@gurteen.com